Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player

I bought this dvd player back in 2003 as a suggestion from a friend. it plays .avi and .divx files i burn onto a dvd. it also has an easy code to make it region free. which again is awesome cause i have a lot of region 2 and 3 movies. i never had a problem with this player. it has always worked. the only thing it doesn't like are mp4 files. don't know if there is an update for that. it is a little dated being from 2003 so it has no hdmi out put. but if you are looking for a good player that will last you a long time, i suggest this. i have had mine for 6 years and love it.

I have two of these units. One gets very little use. The other got used almost daily and it's the one that died with the standby light blinking. There's a capacitor (labeled c316 on the card) on the power supply board that is notorious for going out. This cap was bulging at the top upon inspection however, it can be bad and look just fine. This cap may go out instantly or it may go out slowly causing all kinds of problems. This cap directly affects the 24v output of the power supply board. The front of this board/card has a labeled connector where you can measure the 24v output. On the dead unit it measured only 3v. I went to RadioShack and got a different cap (pn# 272-1032) rated for 35v at 85c and the spacing of the leads matched the original cap. The temp rating is lower than the original but I'm not concerned about it as 85c (185f) is pretty hot. This cap is larger than the original but it still fit between the other components. This new cap (less than 2$) and a cheap soldering iron, also from the Shack, cost less than 10$.

The card is easily removed for the soldering. I held the old cap with some needle nose pliers as I heated the connections on the reverse side and rocked it side to side while heating 'til it was free. A third hand was needed to hold the card steady. There was enough solder already present that I only needed to heat it to hold the new cap. With the new cap in place the 24v circuit was back up to 24v as measured with a multimeter so I assume this cap is directly in the 24v circuit. The player functions properly now. It turns out the original cap was only rated for 10v (some poor QC there). If your player is acting up or randomly shutting off the 24v circuit should be measured to see if this cap is failing. If it's below 24v it needs to be replaced. If you decide to replace this cap yourself pay attention to the polarity. This board is marked where the cap sits with a circle divided in half. One side of the circle is empty and the other side has several lines in it and this is the side that gets the negative lead of the cap. The new cap will be marked on the plastic label which lead is negative.

This player worked well for me before it died and it was a simple fix for me but still it gets one star for the poor QC. A consumer should not have to do this shortly after the warranty is up.

I had bought this player around 3 years ago, and i'm now experiencing the same thing virtually all dissatisfied owners experienced: the player simply stopped working, and the standby light just keeps flashing. I noticed that the player started behaving strangely in the month or so leading up to this - it skipped around on discs that seemed to have no issues; it turned itself off at random, the remote wouldn't respond very well, etc. The only thing that i'm amazed at is that it took around 3 years of light-to-moderate use (I used it for TV-on-DVD viewing on a 2nd tv) to get to the point of failure. this must be a problem with Phillips stuff - i had a cd player made by them (1st gen) that ran fine for around 6 years, then the power supply/standby completely cr@pped out on me and wouldn't power up, trapping the disc inside. This time, i literally had to take the DVD player apart, because a rare/out-of-print disc was inside. i basically trashed the machine but was able to get the disc out safely; no matter, as i'm tossing the player. Very disappointed with this purchase.

I bought one of these and it worked for a couple years and then one day, stopped turning on and ate my DVD. I was irritated, but I thought maybe I was unlucky and got the lemon.

A friend lent the same DVD player to me recently and within a month of having it, it has stopped turning on and ate yet another DVD of mine. And now after reading more reviews, I'm convinced this DVD player is a piece of crap that is only meant to last just beyond the life of the warranty.

DO NOT BUY THIS DVD PLAYER. I never really write reviews, but this DVD player has been such a piece of crap I feel it's only right to warn people.

In the world today of multi-purpose devices, sometimes simple is better. I needed a DVD player since my old DVD/VHS player had died. The price was right on this unit. The extra features are nice, but I have hardly ever had reason to use them. That said, you can put a lot of .avi files on a disk and what them in their native format. Great for home movies straight from the camera.

Some people have said that there are lifespan problems with the device. I've had mine for several years without a single problem. I use it often, not only for movies but also for CD's.

Overall it is a great unit at a great price.